HAVING been told he was the worst employee the small town guitar shop had ever had, the 25-year-old Joseph Arthur sent out demos of his songs to everyone he knew.

Bizarrely, one of them up ended with Peter Gabriel who fell in love with the song History and asked the young American to record at his Real World Studios near Bath.

Some 15 years on he's built a solid fanbase as the singer-songwriter's singer-songwriter. The likes of Michael Stipe and Chris Martin have recorded with him and he's won plaudits for his exhibitions of paintings, many of which are produced while he plays solo shows using looping effects pedals to recreate the layered sounds from his albums.

But it's a different kind of show that comes to Southampton's Talking Heads venue on Thursday - part of the first UK tour for his band, The Lonely Astronauts.

"This will be more fun I think - no painting, but the band is a masterpiece," he tells me. "I've painted so much recently that I need a break. I look forward to just singing and playing - plus, no mess after!"

Joseph released two albums on the same day in September - his solo record Nuclear Daydream and The Lonely Astronauts' Let's Just Be. At a time when the record industry is in a state of total flux, it seems as eccentric a ploy as Radiohead's pay-what-you-like online release of their In Rainbows album.

"Well, Nuclear Daydream was made first. The band came together to help me promote it in the States and we became a real band on the road, then went directly into the studio. Let's Just Be is our honeymoon - the sound of a band discovering itself.

"We actually we did the same thing as Radiohead with rough mixes of Let's Just Be. I offered them up online and said: Pass the hat. Pay what you like.' However, for people to really take notice, it helps if you're one of the biggest bands in the world."

So how do you decide what is a Joseph Arthur song and what is a Lonely Astronauts song?

"Similar to my method of painting, where I try to make thoughtless and fearless broad motions and then whatever shapes appear inform where it goes from there.

"I follow the songs and let the shape of things appear. A new solo record is coming out in the spring and The Lonely Astronauts have already recorded the follow up to Let's Just Be."

Not that it will be a problem for someone as prolific as Joseph - he's released seven albums in 10 years - but as record sales drop it looks like artists will make more from live shows and merchandise, which means they'll tour more often - like medieval minstrels perhaps?

"I agree about the medieval minstrel vibe. There's less money for record companies to make so they invest less. I always make more music than I put out so I just look for opportunities to put things out and take them when I can. The main thing is, if you want a career in music you had better love making and playing music for its own sake; or else you're in for a great deal of disillusionment.

"But if you love it, you're the luckiest soul on earth."

Arguably Joseph's best known song, In the Sun featured a beautifully witty black and white video made by former NME photographer Anton Corbijn, whose debut movie, Control, about Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, opened to worldwide praise last month. What did Joseph make of it?

"I think it's a masterpiece from beginning to end," he says. "Hard to believe it's his first film, but knowing Anton it doesn't surprise me. No one but him could have made that film."